PLDT shuts out sites streaming school shootings, violence
Telco giant PLDT Inc. on Friday announced that it will block from its network more than 100 websites found to be streaming or hosting footage of school shootings and “other acts of extreme violence,” as the country saw a second fatal campus attack in less than two months.
In a statement, the Manuel V. Pangilinan-led telco said the measure was preemptive and meant to ensure that its networks would not serve as a channel for content that glorifies violence and could put communities, particularly children, at risk.
“This is something we do not tolerate,” PLDT chief operations officer Butch Jimenez said. “Our networks will not be used as a channel for content that glorifies violence and puts our communities, especially our children, at risk.”
The blocking will also cover the network of its wireless arm, Smart Communications Inc., which means PLDT and Smart subscribers will no longer be able to access the websites flagged by the telco.
The decision was made three days after a school shooting at Ateneo de Zamboanga University in Mindanao, where a 14-year-old student shot and killed another junior high school student before also fatally shooting himself. Two others were wounded.
The shooting was livestreamed through the shooter’s Facebook account and another website, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier said.
It happened less than two months after another school shooting in June at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, Leyte, where three students were killed and at least 20 others were wounded.
‘No debate here’
While PLDT did not disclose the websites it would block, the company signaled that its crackdown would continue as it identifies more sites through its own monitoring and in coordination with government agencies, child protection organizations and parenting communities.
“There is no debate to be had here,” Jimenez said. “Content that turns real-world violence into entertainment has no place on our networks and in our society, and we will keep acting decisively every time we find it.”
In both school shooting cases, the government has looked into online games as possible factors behind the incidents. In the Zamboanga shooting, Remulla said the shooter may have been influenced by Roblox, while the Tacloban incident led to the suspension of another game, GoreBox.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology has yet to determine whether Roblox actually played a role in the Zamboanga shooting, although it said the company behind the gaming platform was cooperating with authorities.
In March, before the two school shootings but amid growing scrutiny of Roblox’s child protection measures, PLDT and Smart said they were prepared to block the game on their networks should the government order them to do so.
PLDT said its latest move to block more than 100 websites forms part of its broader child protection and online safety programs, which already include blocking sites that host child sexual abuse material.
In the first two months of 2026 alone, PLDT and Smart blocked 176,000 attempts to access content linked to the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
